Anna Meares

Two Olympic gold medals and ten world titles puts Anna Meares on a par with Victoria Pendleton at the top of women’s sprinting. Kristina Vogel (Germany) may be dominating on the boards at the moment, but Meares has the better palmares and is determined to get back to her best for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

She won her first Olympic title in Athens 2004 in the 500m tt but only made steady impact on the international sprint scene in the years after. In Janaury 2008, just eight months out from the Beijing Olympics she fractured a vertebra in her neck. She made an astonishing comeback to take silver in the sprint behind a flying Victoria Pendleton.

From then she started to rack up the world titles and now owns nine. A break from international compeition post London 2012 coincided with the rise of Kristina Vogel’s powers and Meares remains a little way off the pace of her German rival.